THE FIFTH ACT by Elliot Ackerman received its first trade starred-review from Kirkus. The reviewer raves: “Making sense of chaos is never easy, but this powerful book does much to explain why America’s debacle in Afghanistan ended the way it did…Ackerman should be commended not just for his work helping Afghans escape safely, but also for providing a must-read account of the end of America’s longest war…Courage and folly, dedication and tragedy: Ackerman deftly captures all dimensions of a protracted foreign policy failure. Penguin Press will publish the book on August 9, 2022.

Rebecca Stott’s novel DARK EARTH received a glowing review from the Guardian UK. Alex Preston raves: “Rebecca Stott’s superb third novel, DARK EARTH, dramatises the parallels between archaeology and historical fiction. Stott is a renowned historian, but in this excavation of London’s deep past she has created something radically new and beautiful, a book that retells a period of our national past that straddles the line between history and myth.” Random House will publish the novel on July 19, 2022.

Cleyvis Natera’s debut novel NERUDA ON THE PARK received stunning praise from The New York Times Book Review. Reviewer Mia Alvar praises it as “earnest [and] provocative,” adding: “[L]ove – profound, mundane, imperfect – so warmly suffuses the book its pages practically glow with it…Natera’s style is refreshingly direct and declarative, and at its best, this approach feels confident and sharp, a mirror capturing the bleak comedies of life in a threatened community…NERUDA ON THE PARK avoids pat answers, but tenderly and thoughtfully invites readers to weigh our own obligations to the places and people who made us. Ballantine Books published the novel on May 24, 2022.

AN IMMENSE WORLD by Ed Yong earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly. The reviewer writes: “Pulitzer-winning journalist Yong (I CONTAIN MULTITUDES) reveals in this eye-opening survey animals’ world through their own perceptions…[Yong]’s a strong writer and makes a convincing case against seeing the world as only humans do: ‘By giving in to our preconceptions, we miss what might be right in front of us. And sometimes what we miss is breathtaking.’ This is science writing at its best.” Random House will publish the book on June 21, 2022.

Ahead of its summer release, Lucy Cooke’s BITCH has already gained impressive critical acclaim. A starred review from Kirkus describes the book as “[a] cheerful and knowledgeable popular science review of female animals” and “[a] top-notch book of natural science that busts myths as it entertains,” adding: “Readers will receive a superb education in the evolution and mechanics of animal sex as well as countless colorful anecdotes describing bizarre reproductive behavior. Readers will find the familiar account of female spiders eating males as they try to mate, but there is much more to discover in Cooke’s fascinating pages.” Meanwhile, a review from Publishers Weekly praises the book as “zippy” with “vivid detail,” adding: “The author has a charmingly irreverent style that, among other things, pokes holes in the sexist scientific research of old that used cherry-picked data to conclude females weren’t worth studying. This hits the right balance between informative and entertaining; popular science fans will want to check it out.” Basic Books will publish the book on June 14, 2022.

Sarah Manguso’s VERY COLD PEOPLE received a rave review from The Guardian. Reviewer Laura Elkin writes: “Well into a career that encompasses poetry, memoir and projects such as her 2017 collection of quotable fragments 300 ARGUMENTS, the American author Sarah Manguso has turned to the novel…[VERY COLD PEOPLE] is a testament to the marks left by the past from generation to generation, and the frigid world of Waitsfield offers Manguso the perfect metaphor for it: ‘The salted snow left white lines on the flagstones, and even if you poured hot water over them and scrubbed, as my mother did each spring, those ghosts of winter never quite disappeared.’” Hogarth published the novel on February 8, 2022.

Rebecca Stott’s debut novel DARK EARTH received a starred review from Kirkus. The reviewer writes: “The conflict at the climax of this novel is not a clash of arms but a battle between brute power and cunning, between selfish greed and communal strength. Stott fills holes in written history with magic, mythic resonance, and 21st-century wish fulfillment.” Random House will publish the novel on July 19, 2022.

Rio Cortez’s forthcoming debut poetry collection GOLDEN AX received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. The reviewer praises: “Cortez maps untrodden historical and speculative terrain in poems of stunning breadth and intimacy in this exquisite debut…Unflinching and generous, this bold collection opens new vistas in contemporary Black poetry.” The collection also received a stunning blurb from AIN'T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT author Jason Reynolds, which reads: “GOLDEN AX is a mirror maze where every poem elongates or widens the reader. Though Cortez leads us through a personal journey that embodies the distortion of the archived and the imagined, I couldn't help but feel at the end of it that I'd been in congress with some of my own lesser-recognized selves. I've never read anything like it. Truly a sublime experience.” Penguin Books will publish GOLDEN AX on August 30, 2022.

THE PINK HOTEL, Liska Jacobs’s forthcoming third novel, received a positive review from Publishers Weekly. The reviewer praises the book as “amusing” with a “chaotic climax [that] is something to behold,” adding: “Readers…will be easily carried along by the rollicking madcap sensibility.” MCD will publish the book on July 19, 2022.

Nada Alic’s debut short story collection BAD THOUGHTS earned strong praise in a review from Publishers Weekly. They write: “In Alic’s candid and humorous debut collection, women explore their darkest thoughts and fears…As the characters wrestle with what’s missing from their lives, the author finds mordant hilarity. The more Alic leans into the weirdness, the more addictive this becomes.” Vintage will publish the book on July 12, 2022.